Fact of the Week: Robot Imports Improved Productivity of French Manufacturing Firms
Source: Alessandra Bonfiglioli et al., “Robot Imports and Firm-Level Outcomes,” Working Papers, University of Milano-Bicocca , no. 528 (October 2023).
Commentary: An October 2023 working paper by Alessandra Bonfiglioli et al. analyzed the relationship between adoption of imported robots and firm outcomes. Using firm-level data from France’s statistical agency (INSEE), the study covered over 60,000 French manufacturing firms from 1994 to 2013. The authors assessed firm outcomes for productivity, sales, employment, and share of high-skill employees. Specifically, the authors measured robot adoption by looking at robot exposure. They constructed a proxy variable for robot exposure using data on robots as a share of total capital and on employee replaceability. The results yielded positive firm-level outcomes, particularly when looking at productivity and sales.
When looking at how firms that engage in robot adoption compare to those that do not, the authors note that robot adopters tend to be larger than non-adopters in terms of sales, total employment, and employment share of high-skill employees. When looking at the average effects on productivity and sales, a 1-percent increase in the proxy for robot exposure was associated with a 0.30 percentage point increase per year in productivity, measured by value-added output per worker, and a 0.15-percentage point increase per year in sales. When looking at the overall effects on workers, the a 1-percent increase in the proxy for robot exposure was associated with a 0.09-percentage point drop per year in total employment. However, there was also a modest increase of 0.6 percentage points per year in the employment share of high-skill employees. The drop in total employment should also not distract from the larger benefits of higher productivity.
